Continuing with my installation step-by-step series, I’ll be installing the BigFix client version 8.1.617.0.  This relates to my BigFix Personal Lab infrastructure. 
Get your own trial version of BigFix at the Corp website.

First locate your installer of the client and the corresponding masthead file.  In this step-by-step we’ll be using the EXE and not the MSI version of the installer.

I’ll be installing it onto my root server, a Windows 2008r2 server, however the installation process is the same for the EXE regardless of which Windows OS you’re using except for maybe the UAC dialogs.

I’ll be installing with the defaults, since I’m happy for the client to be installed onto the C drive for my endpoints.  However you may want to change the installation directory depending on company policies.

That’s all there is to it.  There are a few validation steps I’ll go over here which will give me the peace of mind that it is functioning properly.

Browse to the clients Logs directory, in my case its “c:\Program Files (x86)\BigFix Enterprise\BES Client\__BESData\__Global\Logs” and look for the todays dated log. 

You’ll be looking for two very important parts of this log.  The “Attempting to register” which should appear indicating the client itself is working and trying to get to the root server (or relay you specified).  And the “Registered with url” which shows us that it was able to talk to the root server (or relay) and has started the gathering process.

Please leave your comments and questions below!